


In The Cards

by dapperanachronism



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Magical Empathy, Over Enthusiastic Fans, Paparazzi, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8906377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapperanachronism/pseuds/dapperanachronism
Summary: By this point Tony really should have been used to the more bizarre twists and turns his life had taken -- especially since setting up a high profile superhero crash pad. But it turns out there are things that still manage to catch even him off guard and leave him floundering. Meanwhile the way he feels every time Steve looks at him, when his chest goes all warm and fluttery, well that certainly isn't making any of this any easier.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grue/gifts).



> A huge thanks to [Robin_tCJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin_tCJ/pseuds/Robin_tCJ) for the beta, and for constantly letting me throw ideas at her.

“Mr. Stark, just a minute of your time?”

The coffee cup was halfway up to Tony’s lips when his attention was pulled by the voice behind him. The rich, bitter smell taunted him as he leaned against the counter, the barista giving him a sympathetic look. Dammit, couldn’t a man enjoy his elixir in peace? He didn’t always stop at the coffee shop that had taken up residence in the main floor lobby of the tower, not when there were cupboards full of the stuff in the kitchens upstairs, but every once in awhile when he wanted to clear his head, or he was out early for a meeting anyway, he enjoyed the ritual of stopping in and grabbing a cup of the city’s best roast, perfectly brewed with an art that Tony had never been able to replicate quite right, no matter how he tried. That’s why he’d invited them to set up shop in the building in the first place -- if he couldn’t recreate this masterpiece he as least wanted it to be close at hand. 

 

And now, some asshole had interrupted his moment. Needless to say, Tony was not impress. 

Just to spite the guy, Tony turned around to face him before taking a long, slow sip, taking his time to truly _enjoy_ the way the flavours rolled across his tongue. Only then did he lower his cup, raise an eyebrow and acknowledge the interloper.

“One minute. Go.” 

“I just came down here to try and strong arm a statement about the game --”

“-- wait what game --”

“-- and to investigate the truth behind everyone’s favourite rumours.”

“What rumours?” 

“So how about it?” the guy continued with a manic glint in his eye. “The man himself -- what do you have to say?”

Tony blinked a few times, feeling totally and completely lost in whatever whirlwind of a conversation had just happened. “Okay,” he said carefully, “I’m going to need you to take a step back because I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

The poor kid -- he couldn’t be any more than 22 or 23, eager for a chance to prove himself -- poor kid looked utterly crestfallen. But to his credit he pressed on. 

“The the new special edition foil Captain America and Iron Man card that was released for the Trading Card Game.”

The kid said it like it should have made everything clearer, but Tony was just as lost as he was two minutes ago.

“You know... The Avengers Trading Card Game?” the kid said again hopefully, and Tony just shook his head. 

From behind him the barista piped up. “It was really underground for a long time, but recently it’s blown up and gone mainstream.”

Tony’s head was reeling. Was he really that out of touch? That couldn’t be the case. But suddenly he felt really damn old. Then the rest of what the kids had said caught up to him. “Wait, what do you mean ‘Avengers Trading Card Game’? We definitely didn’t okay that.”

“Well, sure,” the barista said casually, shrugging. “Like I said, it’s been underground. But I am kind of curious what you think about the card.” 

It was a good thing that Tony liked her, and that she made a damn good coffee. “What. Card.” His eyes narrowed on the kid who’d started this whole damn confusing conversation in the first place. In response, the kid reached into a pocket and pulled out a shiny, foil card and eagerly shoved it into the hand that Tony didn’t have currently curled around his coffee cup like it were a lifeline. 

A second later, Tony’s jaw dropped and he let out a very undignified squawk that he would forever deny with every breath inside him. Because staring up at him was a beautiful, artistic rendering of Captain America leaning back in Iron Man’s arms, their mouths pressed together in a passionate kiss. While standing on top of a giant flaming skull surrounded by what looked like the ruins of a HYDRA base. The whole thing was… surprisingly detailed. 

“That’s…” It was a rare moment Tony’s words failed him. He opened his mouth, waiting for his customary pithy response but nothing was forthcoming. 

“Um... Mr. Stark? Can I get a statement?” the kid asked hesitantly while the barista was trying to hide her laughter -- and failing miserably. 

“Nope,” Tony said briskly, and turned to walk away. “I am officially three hundred percent done with this conversation. So long.” 

He waved as he stalked off, followed by the barista calling out to him, “I’ll tell Steve you said hi when he comes by.”

“You do that,” Tony said before disappearing around the corner to the private elevator, planning to disappear a lot further than that. Maybe, if he was lucky, this would all blow over before Steve found out.

* * *

Of course Steve found out anyway. It was all Clint’s fault. Clint and Bucky. Tony regretted an awful lot of things in his life -- making weapons, Maya Henson, a brief moment of bleached hair in the 90s… but he regretted nothing so much as allowing Clint and Bucky to live in his tower.

It had only been a day since the incident at the coffee shop, and since then he’d gone out of his way to learn everything he could about this damned game. Sure enough, it was real. Someone -- or a group of someones -- had gotten the bright idea to design a secret, underground, bootleg trading card game featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Only now the game wasn’t so secret anymore. Since the release of the Captain America and Iron Man card, the popularity of the game had skyrocketed. So really, it was only a matter of time before Steve found out.

He was still blaming Clint and Bucky.

Tony had emerged back into the kitchen from his pit of reading after having systematically sorted through everything that JARVIS could find on the game. And the card. And why that _particular_ card suddenly pushed the game to new heights. It had been… interesting to say the least. Tony was halfway through reheating some leftovers when Steve called from the living area. 

“Hey, Tony, you have a second?” He sounded uncertain, maybe a bit inquisitive, but in any case Tony wasn’t really sure about going to face him. But he could play it cool -- he was Tony Stark, after all. Cool was his thing. 

“What's up, Cap?” he asked as he shuffled into the the living area. Steve was standing in front of the TV, his head slightly tilted as he watched a new report. Okay, nothing out of the ordinary then, so what had Steve --

That's when what the reporter was actually saying filtered into Tony's ears.

“....the bootleg card game has risen to new levels of popularity since its creators released-”

“JARVIS!” Tony croaked before she could continue, and JARVIS, to his credit, immediately shut the TV off.

Steve shifted his attention from the TV back to Tony, regarding him with a kind of confused intensity that made Tony’s chest do weird things that he didn’t want to examine too closely. 

“Tony,” Steve said earnestly, “do you know anything about this… trading card game? About us?”

Tony shook his head and spoke, far, far too quickly. “Nope, no idea, first I’ve heard of it.” Steve kept looking at him like he wasn’t exactly buying what Tony was selling, but he didn’t press the issue.

“I think it kind of looks fun. We should --” Tony never found out what Steve thought that they should do, because Barton and Barnes chose that exact moment to come barreling into the room to save the day.

“Steve! Tony!” Clint cheered breathlessly as he came into the living room and sidled up next to them. “You would not believe what we just found,” he said, shoving _that_ card under Steve’s nose. 

Or ruin the day. Yup. They’d definitely just gone from saving the moment to ruining it in 3.4 seconds, as only they could do. Damn them. Steve took a step back so that he could actually see the damned thing and took a moment to study it in all it’s fiery, makeout glory. Something unreadable shifted and twisted across Steve’s expression, while Tony was silently fuming, plotting how he was going to exact his revenge on those two maniacs. Eventually, Steve managed to formulate a response. 

“It’s certainly --”

“It’s amazing. Steve,” Bucky cut him off, grinning like a fool. “Those creators definitely have your number.” 

“Wait, what the hell do you mean by that?” Steve asked, affronted, but Bucky just rolled his eyes and Clint waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Okay, that was it. Tony was definitely going to have to talk to his lawyer, or PR, or find someone to complain to because he sure as hell _was not_ dealing with this. Steve looked back at him and Tony tried -- and failed -- to shift his expression to neutral, quickly deciding that there was a spot over on the wall that was suddenly very interesting. 

“Oh come on --” Clint huffed, but before he could finish his thought, JARVIS sounded the alarm to assemble. 

Thank God. JARVIS was always his favourite, obviously, but now he was _extra_ the favourite.

* * *

Whatever ass clown was responsible for the magic slime monsters that were slowly sliming all over this Massachusetts town was definitely on Tony’s shit list. Right below Barton and Barnes. Because fuck these slime monsters, seriously. Tony had managed to to track their point of origin to an empty warehouse that Tony was very quickly beginning to suspect was far less empty than originally expected. 

“Cap, with me. I think I found the spawn point,” Tony called over the comms and swooped down towards Steve. Steve jumped with a practised ease, trusting Tony to catch him the way that he always did. Steve pressed himself in close around the armour as Tony took off, shooting out towards the edge of the industrial park where JARVIS had informed him the unusual energy signatures (fucking magic) were originating from. With one shot from the repulsor Tony had blasted a door open and the two of them crept inside. And were immediately greeted by the sight of purple slime everywhere -- wall to wall, floor to ceiling -- and what looked the remnants of an exploded lab.

“What the hell happened here?” Tony murmured as they slowly made their way further inside. About twenty feet in front of him there was a sphere of the purple goop suspended in mid air, Captivated, Tony approached the ball, Steve following beside him. 

“JARVIS give me a scan will you?” Tony asked as he resisted the urge to poke at the ball of goop himself. 

“What is it?” Steve asked at the same time the ball started humming -- resonating, more like it -- and vibrating in the air.

“That’s… that’s probably not a good sign,” Tony said as JARVIS started displaying information on a massive energy spike coming from the ball. 

“Get back!” screamed a voice from the other side of the open space, a second too late as the goop ball exploded, the force of it knocking both Steve and Tony back on the ground, covering them from head to toe in purple slime. Tony felt a surge of something -- energy maybe? -- running through the suit, no, running through _him_. It felt almost like static and he could could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. But as quickly as it hit him, it had stopped. It took both of them a second to regain their senses and climb to their feet, Tony offering a hand to pull Steve up. Looking across the space at the source of the voice they saw a lanky kid, who couldn't have been older than 20, standing there. He stared at them with wide-eyed panic. 

“Alright, buddy,” Tony said, striding across the room towards the kid, “you definitely have some explaining to do.”

* * *

It turned out the kid wasn’t _actually_ trying to create evil, he’d just gotten in over his head trying to experiment with science and magic without the proper safety measures in place. After a stern lecture about responsible sciencing, Tony left him in the hands of the local authorities and went back to clean up, which was frankly terrible. Luckily, the damage had been contained to a small area and no one had been hurt, apart from Tony’s pride. Honestly, he should have made the kid scrub down the armour for him because this was going to be a pain. And Steve’s suit wasn’t going to be much better to get clean.

“Don’t say a word,” Tony snapped, pointing a finger at Bucky, who was snickering behind his hand. 

“I wasn’t going to say anything, I was just thinking what a great colour purple is for you. Really, I don’t know why you didn’t introduce it into your whole thing there sooner,” Bucky said, grinning and gesturing broadly at Tony’s suit.

“You could call it, ‘homage to Hawkeye,’” Clint added, making a sweeping gesture with his arm. “And hey, you and Steve match! That’s great. We should send a photo to the game creators, maybe they can make an ultra rare alternate to the Captain America and Ironman card.”

“I hate you both so much.” Tony said, before taking off. He’d make his own way home, thank you very much.

As he’d anticipated, it had taken hours to clean out the last of the armour. Tnk god he’d had the bots to help, Dummy taking to the task with overzealous enthusiasm. Tony had spent a good chunk of the time on the phone complaining to Rhodey about the game, the card, and the slime monsters, and Rhodey had responded with howling laughter. 

“Honestly, Tony, I can’t believe you sometimes, the shit you get yourself into.” Rhodey said, gasping for breath. Tony rolled his eyes and sighed in mock exasperation.

“Some friend you are, I call for some sympathy and all I get is mockery. I’m wounded.”

“You’re fine,” Rhodey dismissed, “and it’s hilarious, you have to admit that.” Tony couldn’t help but smile in response, but he’d be damned if he’d admit it with words. Once Rhodey had hung up Tony tried to go back to work -- emphasis on the tried part because his brain had other ideas, wandering in at least three different directions, jumping back and forth between projects, the suit, the fight, the game, Steve, himself, the low-grade warm, pleasant feeling that had settled in his chest at some point this afternoon. Eventually he gave up, his thoughts too scrambled to really focus, and feeling a quiet urge to be upstairs with the group. Arriving back up to the common space he found Steve sitting up with Natasha, Clint, Sam and Bucky all sprawled across various furniture. He stopped in the kitchen, puttering around for a few minutes, letting himself run on autopilot as he made himself a cup of coffee, followed by a cup of hot chocolate that he passed to Steve on his way to the couch without a second thought. Steve looked up, surprised and pleased as he wrapped his hands around his mug and took a sip. 

“This is perfect, how did you know?” he asked, smiling at Tony and Tony felt the pleasant feeling in his chest growing as Steve looked at him.

“You asked for it?” Tony asked confused, blinking.

“No... I didn’t. I mean, not today at least,” Steve responded.

“Well, might have been the other day,” Tony shrugged, not thinking too much about it. Didn’t matter whether Steve asked for it. He’d wanted it, so Tony made it. Steve was still regarding him oddly as he sipped the drink that was made _exactly_ the way he liked it, when Tony’s phone buzzed in his pocket. 

“Ugh. I do not want to deal with this,” Tony groaned, pushing himself off the couch to answer the incoming call from his PR department. Truthfully, he was surprised that it had taken this long for PR to reach out to him. By that point, news of the Captain-America-Ironman-Fiery-Makeout-Card had well and truly exploded. It was trending across multiple social media platforms and Tony had very quickly figured out that everyone’s favourite rumour that the reporter kid had mentioned was that he and Steve were secretly dating and/or hooking up in a steamy superhero romance. 

PR wanted them to do an interview about it. Tony tried to argue that it would be better if they just let the whole thing blow over but the Stark Industries PR department insisted, citing the fact that there had been a lot of negative backlash as well as the obvious support. Tony hung up right after they said they’d be in touch the following day with details, and they wanted both he and Steve to be there.

Sure, of course. Why not just make it more awkward? What a great idea. No way this could possibly end badly. 

True to their promise, the following day Tony woke up to a memo from the PR department with all the details of the interview added to his schedule. But he didn’t have to worry about it for hours, and so he retreated down to his shop with every intention of burying himself in a project and trying to completely forget about the whole damn thing. Except once again, he couldn’t, for the life of him, focus. Every time he looked at a schematic he felt his mind wander. He’d make a change and then forget what he was doing halfway through a calculation. He tried soldering a circuit but ended up giving up when he was too restless to sit still. What the hell was wrong with him? Disgruntled, he tossed his work aside and grabbed his jacket, giving in to the restlessness. 

The weather outside wasn’t terrible, but it was one of those days where after a while the wind started to really get to him. Still, it turned out that wandering around midtown was actually kind of enjoyable. It had been a long time since he’d gone out without any purpose or place to be, and the restless edge he was feeling seemed to calm. Eventually, though, the chill started to set in and he ducked into a nearby cafe to grab a coffee and warm up.

“Tony?” called a voice he knew as well as his own and Tony spun around quickly to find Steve sitting at a table in the corner looking at him quizzically. Grabbing his coffee, Tony made his way across the shop and took the seat opposite Steve.

“Of all the gin joints,” he said, raising an eyebrow. 

“I understood that reference. That one was my time,” Steve pointed out.

“I know, that was the point,” Tony shrugged. Still, it was odd. Of all the cafes he could have stepped into, he just happened to find one just off the beaten path where Steve was hiding out. Interesting coincidence.

“So, your PR department contacted me about the interview today,” Steve said casually. Tony couldn’t help but wince a little.

“Yeah, sorry about that. They seem to think it’s better if we both go. Sorry for dragging you into all that.” 

“I don’t mind, really,” Steve shrugged, leaning back easily in his chair. “I mean it’s not the first time I’ve had to do this kind of thing. But you never answered my question before. Had you heard about it before the news?”

“No,” Tony said quickly and then amended, “well, not really. I mean, I’d only just heard about it. Some reporter jumped me in the coffee line and wanted a statement and shoved the card at me.”

“Right,” Steve said slowly. “The card. That’s why you made JARVIS turn the news off?” Steve pressed.

“I panicked?” Tony said, more like a question than anything. “I was still wrapping my head around it?”

“You’re ridiculous, Tony,” Steve chastised him gently. “You couldn’t honestly think that I’d be offended over it.” “Of course not,” Tony said, making a face, not wanting to admit even to himself the real reason he was trying to avoid talking about a picture of him and Steve making out. “But man, that card really is something else, isn’t it?”

Steve laughed and shook his head. “Flaming skull and the ruins of a HYDRA base,” he said in disbelief. “That’s some serious creativity. The art’s actually quite good, though.” 

How had this become his life? Here Tony was, sitting and drinking coffee with Steve -- with Captain America -- and talking about card games made about them, talking about ridiculous art of them, talking about how really _good_ the art was even if he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the whole idea. He should be used to stuff like this by now, but, here they were.

By the time the two of them left the shop and headed to the studio, Tony felt much more at ease, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Steve felt the same. They settled on the couch under the bright studio lights, and just as they were about to start, Steve looked over at him again, and Tony felt a sense of fondness and affection settling on his chest. 

As they progressed, Tony was continually impressed with how well Steve fielded the questions as they fell into an easy banter -- right up until the interviewer started asking the tough stuff.

“So, while most of the reception has been positive, there are a few people out there who think that this picture sends the wrong message,” the reporter said tentatively.

“The wrong message,” Steve repeatedly flatly. “I’m not sure that’s possible, considering that I don’t think it’s really trying to send a message.”

“So, the accusations that the card is ‘depicting inappropriate acts?” she asked.

“Please,” Steve said in a tone that Tony was certain Steve had picked up from him. “The only thing inappropriate happening in that picture is that Captain America and Ironman are kissing in the middle of a ruined base. I mean, there’s a time and a place, and really, we’d at least clear the area and make sure to neutralize all the threats -- including the fire, I’d like to point out -- before doing something like that. But hey, it’s art, you’re allowed to push reality a little in the name of fun.”

Steve, that little shit, he’d definitely been picking up bad habits from him. Tony couldn’t help but snicker beside him as Steve responded. Fortunately, the interviewer seemed to find Steve’s response amusing. 

“So, the rumours that you and Tony are secretly together?” 

“Definitely have no truth,” Tony cut in quickly, feeling his heartbeat quicken, followed by something twisting unpleasantly in his stomach. 

“Nope, no truth,” Steve agreed easily, and although nothing about his expression or tone changed, Tony couldn’t help but sense that Steve’s response felt… off somehow. He couldn’t really put his finger on it, and then the feeling was gone as quickly as it came. 

* * *

The interview somehow managed to make things even worse. Despite the fact that they had explicitly stated that they were, in fact, not together, somehow the internet had started pushing the idea that they _were_ even harder -- which was the opposite of what Tony had intended. Not that Tony had any objection to the idea of he and Steve being together, of course not, it was _Steve_ , it was just that he didn’t want things getting weird between them. Especially since things had already started feeling different in the past couple of days, in a way that Tony couldn’t quite quantify. And, as was the way of things, the harder that the card fans pushed, the harder the right wingers pushed back, screaming about how playboy Tony Stark with no morals had corrupted Captain America. Steve had taken offence to that with a righteous fury, even though Tony had warned him just to let it all blow over. Steve wasn’t a stand-back-and-wait-kind of guy. Tony, on the other hand, had taken his own advice and retreated back down to his shop to make yet another attempt to work and wait for the fad to die down. 

His traitorous brain had other ideas, though. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He wasn’t corrupting Steve -- Steve didn’t need his help with that. Tony knew him well enough by this point to know that he was far from innocent, why was everyone blaming this on him? It was stupid. In fact why in the hell was he so upset about this in the first place? This was by no means the worst thing anyone had said about him and he’d learned long ago not to let junk like this phase him. But here he was, sitting in the shop staring at his screen and fuming, the anger and the desire to tell off all the bigoted ass holes burning deep within him. What the hell was so wrong with the idea of he and Steve kissing anyway? In fact, it would probably be nice; Tony’s strong hands on his hips, leaning up and pressing into a heated kiss, nipping at Steve’s lips playfully and pulling him close to --

Tony shook his head, chasing the thought out. Nope, not going there. He had no idea where that sudden thought had come from, but he was not going down that line of thinking, especially not with a tap against the glass and the sound of a door opening. Tony spun around in time to see Steve coming in, making his way across the shop. For the briefest of moments Tony was sure that he saw Steve’s eyes flicker down to his lips, but no, that was his mind playing tricks, obviously still trying to cling onto the image that had been taunting him before Steve came in. 

“What can I do for you, Cap?” he asked, wrestling his expression into one of casual indifference.

“I thought you might be upset,” Steve said warily, as though he weren’t quite sure, himself. Tony _was_ upset, frustratingly so, but he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone or even shown any indication of it. Steve must have just been acting on a really good hunch.

“I’m fine,” he said carefully, watching as Steve frowned momentarily. 

“Well, Bucky and Clint are going out to grab a bite to eat and I’m probably going to go with them. You should come. I mean, if you want.” 

Tony was about to decline, but under the casual invitation Steve had made, Tony suddenly couldn’t shake the feeling that Steve really, really wanted him to say yes, and that he’d be disappointed to leave Tony behind.

“Yeah, sure, I could eat,” Tony agreed, not wanting to disappoint Steve. He’d definitely made the right call. Immediately Steve’s whole face lit up, which Tony would never tire of seeing, he was certain.

“Great. We’re going to this burger place that Bucky swears has the best milkshakes. I’m not willing to believe him until I try one myself.” 

Shutting down his work, Tony followed Steve up to meet Bucky and Clint, letting them lead the way to the land of magical milkshakes. He easily fell into step beside Steve, their shoulders occasionally brushing as they made their way down the narrow sidewalk, but neither of them seemed inclined to pull away. That was, until they were stopped by a man darting in front of them to grab a picture of them close side by side.

“Hey, do you mind?” Steve snapped, obviously frustrated, but the guy didn’t seem to remotely care that he was bothering them. 

“Mr. Stark, what do you have to say about the recent rising opinion that you’ve corrupted Captain America?” he asked bluntly, crowding into their space. Tony could see the wave of anger spreading over Steve’s face as Steve opened his mouth to respond. But before he could, Tony felt that surge of righteous anger swell in his chest and he cut in front of Steve.

“First of all, it’s not a ‘rising opinion,’ it’s the same few assholes who always think there’s something wrong with two men kissing or being together, which is bullshit. I mean, come on people, get your heads out of your asses. Second of all, I’m not ‘corrupting’ Captain America. Steve’s a goddamned _adult_ and a _person_ , and it’s high time you all remember that. And finally, _this_ is what I think about it,” with a manic glint in his eye, feeling one hundred percent done, and feeling Steve’s rage beside him, Tony turned, grabbed the front of Steve’s jacket and pulled him down into a hard, burning kiss before he could even think about what he was doing. Dimly, he was aware of Clint and Bucky cheering and the asshole guy taking photos, but all of that paled in comparison to the moment when Steve overcame his surprise and relaxed into the kiss. Tony could _feel_ the moment that Steve’s confusion shifted into want. Tony pressed his advantage, deepening the kiss as Steve’s lips parted for him. The feeling in his chest transformed into one of pure joy, and he embraced it, enjoying every second of having Steve’s mouth pressed against his. Right up until his brain caught up to what his body was doing. In an instant, he broke the kiss and stepped back, staring at Steve with wide, horrified eyes. 

“I… shit. I think I left the... something on,” he said before turning on his heel and taking off in the opposite direction, fleeing from Steve as fast as possible. 

* * *

Six hours later saw Tony on the other side of the country, pacing back and forth in a fancy hotel suite. He’d messaged Pepper and told her that he’d decided to do a random check in with the West Coast Production Facility, but by that point the picture of him kissing Steve had already gone viral. She’d told him that he couldn’t run forever and he’d responded with a blasé ‘watch me. Also I'm not running, I’m working.’

But he wasn’t kidding anyone, not even himself. He was totally running. He certainly couldn’t face Steve just then, or anyone, really because he’d definitely just made everything a thousand times worse, and really was there any coming back from this? He hadn’t wanted things to get weird between he and Steve, and then he’d had to go off and be the one that made it weird. Dammit, Stark. At least out here he had something else to focus on.

The manager of the production facility had actually been delighted when Tony had shown up unannounced at the front door the following day. It really had been a long time since he’d come out this way, and he was treated to a full tour of the facility, the recent upgrades, and the manager throwing dozens of questions at him, soliciting advice for improvements and increased efficiency. There was a reason Tony liked this guy, and he was happy to roll up his sleeves and get to work. For the first time in days he was actually able to focus on something and get some real work done, and it was enough that he could ignore the ache that had settled in his stomach -- at least for a little while. The second day, it was worse, but he pushed it aside. By the third it was almost unbearable and had shifted into feelings of sadness, of longing, of _missing._ But it didn’t make sense because he was still having a blast out here, genuinely enjoying himself, and yet it still felt like a part of him was missing.

It wasn’t until he got back to his hotel that night with nothing to distract him that he finally realised they weren’t _his_ feelings. They were feelings _about_ him. From Steve. Steve missed him, and he could _feel_ it.

“Holy shit,” Tony muttered to himself, dropping onto the couch in the living room of his suite. A moment later, he felt something like a gentle prod in the back of his mind. His first instinct was to shove it aside, block it out, but it felt kind of like a familiar presence. A new theory was forming in his head and so, taking a deep breath, Tony allowed himself to focus on the sensations. There it was. It _was_ Steve, Steve missing him, Steve wanting to talk about what happened, Steve just wanting him to come home, Steve wanting him. But no, God, no, that was a terrible idea. He would be a _terrible_ match for Steve. A second after that thought, Tony was hit with a sudden urge of reassurance and resolve as Steve pushed back against his doubt. Huh. So Steve had felt that, then. Whatever this sharing feelings thing was, it went both ways. And yeah, that probably explained a few things.

_Please, I want this._

The feeling was so damn strong that it took Tony’s breath away. His mind was suddenly flooded with the image of him kissing Steve, only this time he could feel everything that Steve had felt, the surprise, the need, the desire to wrap Tony in his arms and return the kiss over and over again.

_Come home._

He couldn’t ignore it. All he wanted in the world was to be back in New York, back home. He wanted to see Steve again and know that they were alright. Fifteen minutes later he was in a car back on the way to the airport.

He hadn’t told Steve that he was coming back, and yet when the jet touched down, Steve was standing out on the tarmac waiting for him, smiling brightly. Wordlessly, Tony closed the distance between them and folded himself into Steve’s arms. Steve held him tight against his chest. This felt right. He was happy, Steve was happy, and they were right where they belonged. 

* * *

Eventually, after a consultation with Bruce, a lot of tests of the slime residue, and an extended video call with Thor, who was off with Jane in Norway, Tony was finally able to figure out what had happened. It turned out that the magic part of the magic-science hybrid had had some interesting effects on them when they’d been hit by the exploding slime ball. Thor had explained it like kind of a harmonic resonance between them, putting them in tune with each other and what the other was feeling. But he assured them that just as it had slowly grown in strength over the preceding days, it would eventually fade and leave them back to normal. At least, normal except for the part where Steve and Tony were now aware of their feelings for one another, and after a lot of talking and a good deal of action -- and oh, wasn’t _that_ a fun surprise --, Steve had convinced Tony that they should actually _be_ together. _Date._ There was no way that after all this Tony could deny what he wanted, especially not now that he was intimately aware of how upset Steve had been when he’d taken off. All that was left was going public. 

“You look amazing,” Tony murmured. He leaned over and straightened Steve’s bow tie as the car pulled up in front of the venue of the annual Maria Stark Foundation Fundraiser Gala and Auction. Steve climbed out first, waiting for Tony to step up beside him before casually slipping his arm around Tony’s waist. Immediately, half a dozen cameras started flashing as they walked towards the entrance and up the steps. 

“Mr. Stark!” someone called, and they both paused and turned back. “Are you and Captain Rogers still standing by your statement that you’re not together?” he asked, looking pointed at the two of them pressed together, leaning into each other’s space.

“Ah... well... about that,” Tony said, clearing his throat. “The situation is… evolving.” 

Rolling his his eyes, Steve leaned in and gave Tony a quick kiss. “What he means to say is ‘yes’. Yes, we are together and quite happy, thank you.” With that, they turned and Steve led Tony inside. 

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the top-selling item at the charity auction was an autographed copy of a special, foil card from a bootleg trading card game, featuring Captain America and Ironman kissing on top of a flaming skull in the ruins of a HYDRA base.

“You know, we could totally re-stage this,” Tony said, leaning into Steve’s side. Steve darted his head down and dropped a quick peck on Tony’s lips. 

“I can think of a lot of better places I’d rather kiss you,” he murmured with a mischievous glint.

Yeah, this was definitely going to work out just fine. 

 

 


End file.
